C L Raven

Silent Dawn tells the story of Ben, Keira, and Drake and their interest of a video game Silent Dawn, and how the game seems to begin merging into the real world.

This book is beautifully written, paced, structured, and doesn’t hold back from putting the protagonist through their paces. It has a tension that rises as the story progresses and as a reader I was wondering what was really going on with the story. There was times when I couldn’t quite figure out what exactly might be happening.

The beautiful cover by River Rose

Each one of the protagonist has a lot of depth and all have a very engaging personality. Each one felt very genuine, as did their home lives and what they had to go through when they were at school. These teenagers are not the stereotypical teenagers that you see in the media, and for me that is one of the things that made them more real. That and what they went through when they were at school. Ben, Keira, and Drake are goths and they suffer the fact that they are not afraid to be different from the herd. What the characters went through with their class mates and teachers is so exquisitely handled by C L Raven it felt like I was there with them. I got a little bullying when I was at school but it wasn’t to the extent that Ben, Keira, and Drake go through though.

Cat and Lynx Raven

Something I really like about how C L Raven have written this is that we don’t really see a lot of Silent Dawn. They keep her as the boogey man type character, and that works really well for the story. As I was reading it I was never quite sure when or where she’d appear in the story.

I’ll wrap this review with a quick comment about the social commentary and humour in this story. The dialogue between Ben, Keira, and Drake is just beautiful. It’s humorous, on point, character building, and just fun. There was more than a few times which had me laughing aloud.

I enjoyed this book massively, and would recommend that people check it out.

Yesterday I travelled to Edgbaston Cricket ground for Birmingham Horror Con with my buddy Stefan and his partner, Steph, and boy was it a lot of fun! Aside from the fact that I got to see my friends C L Raven again I met some awesome people who all seemed really nice. I brought a load more books, T-Shirts and some really cool artwork, as well as a couple of comics.

My Swag From Birmingham Horror Con

One of the things I’ve loved most about the cons I’ve been to (DemonCon, Bristol Horror Con, and now Birmingham Horror Con) is how warm and welcoming these events are. I’ve not encountered any negativity from anyone. It just seems to be everyone there to enjoy themselves, which is really refreshing! In a world where there’s so much hatred and desire to stop other people enjoying themselves it’s something I’ve found to be really quite awesome.

The Awesome Cat and Lynx Raven

As for Birmingham Horror Con, it was vibrant, full of great people selling their books, works of art, clothing, jewellery, and a tonne of other horror related merchandise. As I mentioned it was great to see Cat and Lynx Raven again, and spend a little time talking to them. It was also great chatting to Dave from From The Shadows, J.R. Park, Daniel Marc Chant and very briefly with Adam Nevill. This is where I fail a little. I need to get better at talking to people. I do have a shyness and I need to get over that. Just talking to the cosplayers and getting some photo’s of them would be great as well because they all looked so cool!

There’s another one later in the year, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get there for it but I’m going to try. I will definitely be there again next year because it was just so much fun.

I haven’t blogged this last week because my Grandad died on Monday evening. So, I’ve obviously been a little out of sorts since then. I have continued to write everyday, albeit not many words. I have done a few more pages of editing as well, although I’ve not been as consistent with editing as I have been with writing.

Yesterday (the 4th) was my first zero word count day of the year. I went to Birmingham Horror Con with a couple of friends, so that took up most of the day. And when I got home I was feeling so tired that the thought of writing just seemed to drain me further. I haven’t had much settled sleep this week for obvious reasons, so I sacrificed writing for a little down time. I am a bit annoyed at breaking that chain, but it would be naive of me to think I’m going to be able to write every day this year. Even with the best will in the world, some solid momentum, and the ideas transferring from brain to screen without much resistance, there is still these elements in life which make it difficult to hit a target like writing every day.

I’m sure with time I’ll learn how to manage writing each day with life events. In my own defence I’d planned to be up at 6am yesterday and write for a little of the time before leaving at 8am, but I slept through two alarms and didn’t get up till 7:30am. It was a great day though and I’ll write a post about it in the next day or two.

I have finished reading Silent Dawn by CL Raven, who I saw at the Con, and WOW! what a book. I’d definitely recommend checking that one out (and their other work). It’s a really engaging book that I’ll be writing a review for soon.

I’ve now reading Savant by Nik Abnett. I’m only about thirty pages in, but so far it’s very intriguing.

Today has been a much better day. I’m feeling much more myself and have written 1076 words on Penal Earth and done a couple of pages of editing.

I’m second guessing myself a little bit on Penal Earth, which is something that I seem to do a lot of. Which has got to stop. So, I’m going to plough on with the direction I’m going in and see how it works out. The last couple of stories I’ve worked on (outside of The Space Watch) I’ve done this; going back and begin re-writing the story. I’m not going to do that. If I do need to do anything then I’ll do it in the next draft.

I’m wrapping for the night, I’m going to finish watching this episode of Parks and Recreation. Then I’m going to crack on with Silent Dawn by CL Raven. I’m really getting stuck into this novel now. It’s one of those stories where one sentence I’ve been pulled in by the tension, but the next I’m laughing out loud.

Not much to report today, 819 words on Penal Earth, a couple of pages red-penned on The Space Watch and I’ve done some research.

I’d like to have gotten stuck into the red-penning more but the research took a little longer than I thought it was going to so I’ll be looking to make up for that tomorrow.

With Penal Earth I’m winging it and going by my gut instinct and I’m getting a few ideas for where the story is going. I have been trying to be a bit more prepared when I’m writing, but I’ve got a whole setting that I’ve created which is making this a lot easier but I don’t have a plot line for this story. I know how I want it to end but I’m not sure how I’m going to get there.

That’s a wrap for tonight. I’m off to read some more of Silent Dawn by CL Raven before bed.

I’ve written 1137 words today, most of these were this evening with a few words during my lunch break.

This evening I was a little distracted and it took a bit of time to get rolling but I’m pretty happy with what I got written tonight. I felt a little like I was getting a little stuck but I hope I’ve spun it around and back on track.

I’m reading Silent Dawn by CL Raven and damn this is a good book. I’m about a third of the way through and am really getting pulled into the book.

I’ve got a couple of audiobooks that I’m trying to decide over which one to listen to next, and a buck tonne of comics to choose from reading next. I’m literally spoilt for choice on the comic front. It’s a problem I’m pretty glad to have to be honest!

I’ve not written as many words today, only 269 on Penal Earth. But I’ve edited about 3000 words of The Space Watch, which included about 700 words added.

3000 words seem to be my limit per day for editing. I’m finding that’s quite a consistent number when I have the time to sit down for an hour or two. I could probably push that to 4000 words but I do like to drift in and out of social media as I’m working. I find those few little minutes serve as a brief but helpful break as I’m working.

I have been working on something else which come up today but I’m keeping it all close to my chest for the moment, and it’ll be something that I’ll be working on around The Space Watch and Penal Earth. I’m well over the halfway point of The Space Watch and I’m working through some quite exciting passages of it.

I want to get stuck into Silent Dawn by C L Raven so that’ll be all for tonight. I’ll be visiting my Grandad tomorrow so I’m not expecting to fly through 3000 words of editing but I’ll be interested to see how many I do get through.